BOONE COUNTY, MO. -- A busy bridge just east of Columbia has closed for repairs.

Work crews are replacing the Route WW Bridge over Grindstone Creek.

Authorities said area motorists need to find alternative routes for about the next 2 months.

The 50 year old structure is just one of more than 800 Missouri bridges being repaired as part of MoDOT’s Safe and Sound Bridge Improvement Program.  More than 8,400 vehicles crossed over the bridge every day including Linda Schuyler’s car.  Like everyone else in the El Chaparral Subdivision and other neighborhoods along Highway WW, Schuyler lost her short cut to Columbia because of the bridge work.

Schuyler said, “It’s going to take me about 15 to 20 minutes extra because I have to go back south and then come back north.”

Workers at the Casey’s Convenience Store at the entrance of the El Chaparral Subdivision expect more business during the next 2 months.

Store Clerk Mike Arundel said, “At least everybody in this neighborhood and this general area, it will kind of keep them close to us.  They won’t want to go all the way around and go to Wal-Mart or something like that.”

The bridge closing has forced emergency officials to make alternative plans.  Boone County firefighters are trying to keep response times as safe as possible.  Boone County and Columbia firefighters as well as local ambulance drivers identified the quickest routes to get around the closed bridge.

Boone County Fire Protection District Battalion Chief Gale Blomenkamp said, “We’ve put some extra staffing at Station 12 at WW and El Chaparral.  We’ve also adjusted some run cards as far as units responding to that side of town.”

MoDOT Officials said the Route WW Bridge was one of the worst bridges in Missouri.  A new concrete bridge will take its place sometime in Mid-April.

MoDOT’s $700 million Safe and Sound Bridge Improvement Project is improving or replacing 802 bridges during a 5 year period.

More than 300 Missouri bridges are scheduled for construction this year.